TáiMoss 苔
Yuan Mei: moss flowers are tiny, but they bloom like peonies.
Original Chinese text with pinyin
白日不到处
bái rì bú dào chù
青春恰自来
qīng chūn qià zì lái
苔花如米小
tái huā rú mǐ xiǎo
也学牡丹开
yě xué mǔ dān kāi
Simplified characters; traditional title: 苔.
English translation
Where the sun never reaches,
youth still comes, just in time.
Moss flowers, small as grains of rice,
still learn to bloom like the peony.
Original translation by Poetune — literal but poetic, written for this site.
Line by line
白日不到处 · bái rì bú dào chù — Where the sun never reaches,
青春恰自来 · qīng chūn qià zì lái — youth still comes, just in time.
苔花如米小 · tái huā rú mǐ xiǎo — Moss flowers, small as grains of rice,
也学牡丹开 · yě xué mǔ dān kāi — still learn to bloom like the peony.
Meaning and imagery
Yuan Mei: moss flowers are tiny, but they bloom like peonies. The scene stays with you.
Background
Yuan Mei: moss flowers are tiny, but they bloom like peonies.
Key words
- 苔 tái
- key word in the poem
- 白日 bái rì
- key word in the poem
About the poet: Yuan Mei
Yuan Mei championed native sensibility in Qing poetry.
Lifetime: 1716–1797. Other famous works: Moss (苔); What I Saw (所见).